helenic

A couple of weeks ago I did facepainting at Planet Angel for the first time since December last year. I had a moment last week when I was saving olithered's photos of our Glastonbury installation to my hard drive (I still lament the loss of mine, but it is excellent to have some at all). I opened my "art" folder, looked for the "2009" subfolder, and realised that I hadn't created one yet. I hadn't done a single artwork so far this year.

Facepainting at Angel reminded me of that. Everyone commented how long it's been since they've seen me; it was the first time I'd worked it this year. I went to the Party in March with Denny, but wasn't crewing, and working Planet Angel is like working Glastonbury: a completely different and more rewarding experience, albeit on a smaller scale. The break was good for me, though. When they invited me to come back (due to a long story which resulted in the regular facepainter being forcibly ejected and told never to darken their doors again) I managed to negotiate shorter hours - 11pm-3am rather than 10pm-5am- with cyrus_ii taking the second half of the night from 2-5am. This made the whole experience far more pleasant for everyone; I didn't get over-tired, bored and cranky with the punters I was painting, and I got to dance and see people, and it was lovely.

It was a good weekend to go back, as loads of friends were there I hadn't seen in ages: anarquistador, back from Australia for a couple of weeks for the first time since he went home over year ago; bluedevi, innocent_irony who I hadn't seen since the Stonehenge rite we went to for bard's 30th; tephramancy who has been hermitting the last couple of months, and Laura WINOLJ, who is my ongoing unrequited PA girlcrush, and who I hadn't seen since the last time I was there. After I finished working, it was lovely to sit out in the garden with the girls, also including steerpikelet and her friend Jenny: all awesome women from completely different areas of my life, none of whom I see often enough. We smoked and gossiped and laughed and talked about some surprisingly intimate and difficult things, and it was affirming and brilliant.

The other thing that made that Planet Angel particularly fantastic was the music. I kept walking through rooms just as a classic tune was coming on. After I'd finished working I wandered into the Meltdown Room just in time for some happy 90s anthems that just made me bounce and grin like a loon; I caught Cellardore's Adagio for Breaks as I was heading out of the crew area through the Funky Room, and had to stop and dance to it. Then I decided to head out and find my people in the garden, so I went back to the crew area to get my jumper. As I came down the steps, laden with my bag and outdoor clothes, Cellardore was playing his filthy drum and bass Baker Street mix, and I just dumped my coat on the edge of my dancefloor and started skanking like a loon; he segued straight into his Tubulur Bells mix, even dirtier than the one before, like some sort of fantastically feel-good nostalgia session. After that finished I decided to keep going and get outside, but as I stepped into the Ibiza Bar an extended d&b remix of Faithless' Insomnia came on, so once again I dumped all my stuff on the floor and threw myself into it with abandon.

Cellardore's stuff isn't available for sale yet, but he's signed to Acidic Records (run by some friends-of-friends) and there should be something released soon. I adore everything I've ever heard him play. It's driving, filthy, melodic, bass-led mixes of classical and breaks and jazz and just, he explodes genre and the rhythms make your brain fizz and your heart jump and your blood sing; it makes me want to dance and laugh and punch things and close my eyes and cry, all at the same time. I have spent most of today streaming his stuff on repeat. Listen for yourself, let me know what you think.